Facebook plans to invest at least $1 billion over the next three years to support journalism as the social network company defended its handling of a dispute with Australia over payments to news content providers, the Associated Press reported on Thursday.
Facebook director of global affairs Nick Clegg said that the company was willing to support news media while restating its concerns about compulsory compensation.
Facebook, which has been in contention with Australia over legislation that mandates social platforms to pay news organizations, said it has invested $600 million since 2018 in news. Google, for its part, said in October that it would pay media companies $1 billion over the next three years.
Facebook said Tuesday it would remove a restriction on news links in Australia after the government agreed to modify a proposed law that would help news organizations negotiate payments with Facebook and Google.
Clegg, a former British deputy prime minister who joined Facebook in 2018, said the temporary restriction of sharing news links in Australia was a difficult but "legally necessary" step for the company to protect itself.
"Facebook is more than willing to partner with news publishers ... we absolutely recognize quality journalism is at the heart of how open societies function," Clegg said in remarks quoted by Voice of America, after the company restored news links as part of a compromise agreement with Australian regulators.
Campbell Brown, Facebook's vice president for global news partnerships, said the Australian government made it clear that Facebook will retain the capacity to decide if news becomes visible on its platform so that it will not automatically be subjected to forced negotiation.
Australia's new law could set a precedent for how other nations regulate Big Tech. Countries like France have implemented some policies to make tech companies compensate for news, while others like the UK and Canada are crafting their next steps.
After negotiations with Australian officials, talks that included chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg, legislators agreed to amendments that satisfied Facebook.
